


Drums of Time

by kuhekabir



Series: To the beat of the drums [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-03
Updated: 2013-10-03
Packaged: 2017-12-28 07:36:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/989434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuhekabir/pseuds/kuhekabir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I've got bigger fish to fry than worrying about Unit coming after me," the Doctor said.<br/>"But…" Jack objected.<br/>"Need something new to blow up?" The Master sauntered into the room as if he owned it. "I've got a few places in mind…"<br/>"I'll consider it," the Doctor's simply answered.</p>
<p>With almost all bridges brunt behind them, can the unlikely alliance between the Master, the Doctor and Jack stand the test of time? Or will it crumble, taking the rest of the universe down with them?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drums of Time

**Author's Note:**

> This is the 3rd story in this series. This story will also be the last one in this verse. I hope you will enjoy it!

"Come on, you can do it," the voice tried to lure him away, tried to get him to leave his secure place behind. He wasn’t falling for it, hell no.

"You just always have to be stubborn, don’t you?" the strangely familiar voice accused. The hint of an edge to it almost had him smiling. On the inside at least, since a part of him still knew he'd retreated so far into the depths of his mind that any bodily function would be beyond him right now.

"Stop being so contrary and open your eyes!" the man now yelled, loud enough to make him want to retreat even further. If he surfaced, there would be pain. Pain he could deal with, but…but…he mentally frowned. There was a good reason why he couldn’t surface. He couldn't let them control him. No one controlled him, he thought with venom.

Blessed darkness reigned some more for what could have been aeons or a few seconds. It was hard to tell when floating in the deep recesses of his mind. Quite boring really, he realized. There wasn’t anything to do but hang around, quite literally really. Should he stay? Should he risk a peek? Surely, with his superior mind, he could always withdraw again if the danger was still present. He didn’t want _them_ , whoever they were, he couldn’t recall…anyway, he didn’t want _them_ to win, but did he really want to end up as a vegetable either?

Time Lord vegetable, no, this didn’t have a nice ring to it. A peek couldn’t hurt, right? He slowly tried to move forward, there was just one problem with the scenario. Which way was forward? Did he go up or down? Left or right? It wasn’t as if his mind was like a tunnel, and he was at the very bottom of it.

This wouldn’t do!

He channelled his anger, his fiery rage, into every part of him he could find. He gasped. The world shook. His eyes snapped open, only to close almost instantly due to the blinding light his orbs encountered.

"Master!" The voice was back, this time full of…some emotion he had a hard time classifying.

He squeezed his eyes shut. Maybe this hadn't been his best idea yet.

"You're safe. The bad men are gone, they can't hurt you again."

He snorted, amusement welling up inside him despite his best efforts. _Doctor_. The name popped into his head, and with it, came lots of other things too, things he wasn’t too sure he wanted to recall.

He still didn’t open his eyes despite the soft caress on his face, despite the Doctor's pleading voice for him to do so again. Tiredness settled in his bones, slowly dragging him back under. This time, though, he only went to sleep.

##

The Doctor stared at the Master's sleeping face a while longer than necessary. After a few seconds of stupid panic, it had become obvious the Time Lord wasn’t retreating again, just resting. Still, the Doctor wasn’t the patient sort, not really.

His hand hovered over his sleeping friend's face. How had things gotten so out of hand? How could he overcome centuries of strife, of animosity? All because of him, because of one stupid mistake. He cared for the Master, for Koschei, more than he would ever admit out loud. Did Koschei once feel more for him than just a deep friendship bond? All this time he would've said no, but the recent events were slowly making him look at things from a different angle. Could he have been so wrong? But wasn’t love supposed to be blind?

What if there had been love between them…what if they had destroyed it over the years? Sure, he might've triggered it, started the downward spiral, but once the Master was out of control, there wasn’t anything anyone could've done to stop him.

And yet, despite all their fights, neither one of them had ever tried to seriously harm the other. The Doctor hadn’t really thought about it, to be honest. It had always been sort of a fact, a given, if you so will.

But could they go back? Or, more importantly, could they go forward? The Doctor didn’t forget, he wasn’t that sort of man, and neither was the Master. If Koschei had once loved him, then he would've loved him deeply for the Master couldn’t do things half way.

Had love really turned to hate? Could they build on their shaky foundations?

Time would tell, he guessed. What was more important was that they had the time to do it.

"If you're done staring at him, there's a phone call for you." Jack's voice was sharp, like a diamond cutting through glass.

The Doctor slowly extracted himself from the bed, taking great care not to jostle the mattress. When he passed by his lover, he quietly told him. "You need to get over it. What's done is done."

He didn’t wait for a reply before he sauntered out of the room. He could practically feel Jack's glare on him as he walked down the hallway towards the control room. Jack could handle whoever was on the other end of the line, he had more important matters to focus on.

But Jack wasn’t done yet. "Get over it?" he hissed as he caught up with him. "You obliterated a Unit base!"

"I gave them fair warning," the Doctor countered. "I shouldn’t have, but I still did."

"But…"

The Doctor rounded on Jack, levelling one of his own impressive stares at the dark-haired man. "Do you really mean to tell me they didn’t had it coming? You can't seriously think they had the right to muck around in another being's brain!"

When Jack didn’t immediately answer, the Doctor added. "Or is it because they had the Master? Would it be OK if they wiped him clean and used him as puppet?"

"Of course not," Jack shot back. "But did you really have to blow the place up?"

"It makes a statement," the Doctor mumbled. He turned around again, fumbling with the control.

"Yes," Jack sighed. "It says you're dangerous and maybe even slightly unhinged."

"I won't allow anyone to mess with me and my friends," the Doctor defended his decision. "You know I would go to great lengths to protect the Earth. Why don’t you think I would do the same for my friends?"

Silence was his only answer.

"Unit called again," Jack eventually broke it. "I told them you were busy, but they keep on calling."

"I've got nothing to tell them."

"You will have to talk to them at some stage," Jack injected. "I explained what happened, so they no longer thing you've declared a full on war, but they do want to talk to you personally."

"No."

"Your wife is there too, and Martha."

The Doctor paused. His fingers hovered over a button before he pressed down with a lot more force than strictly necessary. "She isn't my wife. Just because she keeps saying she is doesn’t make it so."

"Look, if you're worried…"

The Doctor didn’t let Jack finish his sentence. He swiftly turned around, his expressive eyes narrowing at his friend and lover. "Unit doesn’t worry me." He laughed. "Just because I favour Earth, doesn’t mean I don’t have other places to go. And what are they going to do? Declare me enemy number one again? How did that work out for Torchwood?"

"Doctor…"

"We've got bigger things to worry about," the Doctor continued. "I can still fee the drums pressing down on my mind. The Master found something out before he ran away, and we need to find out what. And on top of that, I can't shake the feeling that time is running out. So no," he practically spit the last word. "I don’t have the time to entertain Unit. Bigger fish to fry and all that."

He turned around again when an explosion shook his world apart.


End file.
